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Though
it's quickly proving to be one of the biggest buzz games of 2009, Shadow Complex was not a sure bet for
Chair Entertainment when the project began. Born of a love of Super Metroid and G.I. Joe, the
exploratory side-scroller meshes classic '90s 2D game design with contemporary
technology, visuals, and combat.
Chair
Entertainment was founded out of the ashes of the Advent Rising project, an ambitious but ultimately unsuccessful
Majesco-published attempt to build a triple-A epic fantasy adventure series around the writings
of sci-fi author Orson Scott Card. Chair's mission is now decidedly different: to
create high-quality download-only games.
The
company's debut release was 2007's Undertow,
a shooter that gained positive notice and also showed that Unreal Engine 3
could be squished down into 49 megs -- just under Microsoft's cap for download
game size at the time. Technical feats like this were likely one of the reasons the company was acquired by Epic Games
in 2008.
Here,
the company's creative director Donald Mustard, along with his wife, Laura, who
handles PR and biz duties, discuss the inspiration for Shadow Complex, including getting a 2D game to work with
contemporary technology; how to design a classic-style title but remain
relevant to contemporary audiences; how paper design trumps mucking about in
Unreal for prototyping; and how to find the right talent to collaborate with --
and much more.
I know you're a big Super Metroid fan; you probably feel
similarly as I do -- that we're losing as much as we're gaining, by moving
forward into huge 3D games and worlds. I think people felt that way, and we're
kind of getting it back now, with downloadable games.
Donald Mustard: Yeah. I certainly feel that way. I'm ecstatic about games like Castle Crashers and Braid and Splosion Man,
just these really original unique games that are on downloadable services. Look
at games like, I don't know, like Pixeljunk
Shooter coming out in a little bit; it looks awesome. Flower is amazing.
I
think it's provided an avenue for these kind of games that I've certainly been
missing. That's why we made Shadow
Complex. Because no one else was making a game like that. I've been dying
for a Shadow Complex. My only regret
with Shadow Complex is I know where
everything is, so I don't get to play it. I want someone else to make a game
like that, so I can play my favorite kind of game.
It's really strange, because for
years -- since the generation started -- everyone had this expectation that
Konami would make a Castlevania game
for a download service. It never materialized. It's sort of a surprise. Whereas
Capcom sort of went the other way with Mega
Man 9 and Bionic Commando Rearmed.
They actually recognized what they had.
DM: You
know, Cliff Bleszinski is famous for saying that genre is camera, right? It's
just where you place the camera to find the genre you are. In many ways, I
think that's really true. For so many years, we've gone away from the idea that
a camera placed at a more side-scroller perspective isn't as valid or as fun of
a game type or genre as any other one.
I
hope that some of these successful games that are doing that will kind of start
to blur the line between the idea that a game can't just be the best game that
it is. For Shadow Complex to be its
optimal design -- it's a side-scroller. Then sweet, be a side-scroller and
embrace what that genre has to offer and just kind of move it forward. Super Metroid, to me, is the pinnacle of
2D game design, and there's no reason we shouldn't be pushing that pinnacle
forward and see what else we can do with it.
You
seem to have married this Super Metroid-derived
meta-design of the complex and the color-coded doors, with the cover shooter
mechanics that are much more of a recent development in game design. The fact
that it works is even more surprising. Right stick aim in a side-scroller... I
don't want to say in the history of games it's never happened, but I can't
think of an example.
DM: We
couldn't find any examples. It doesn't mean they don't exist.
The only games that I can think of
were more like Robotron or Smash TV... which is more Robotron.
DM: Right,
exactly. That was one thing we really wanted to do. We wanted to take the
exploration elements of Metroid, but
we wanted to fuse it with as much modern sensibility as we could find. We
really thought a good pairing would be the more tactical combat, this idea that
you do have to use cover, you do have to aim, you want to get headshots, you
want to...
That made me laugh, honestly. Not
in a bad way. I don't think "headshot" when I'm playing a 2D game.
[laughs]
DM: Right.
[laughs] Again, most of our development time was spent working on the controls.
And that's the other thing, going from 2D to 3D. Shadow Complex is a fully 3D game. It's using real physics and real
gravity. We really still wanted it to have the tightness of a 2D game but still
be a real 3D game. It's blending animations and doing other stuff that modern
games do. That was a lot of work to get that to feel good.
As soon as polygons became
dominant, people have been making 2D games in 3D... But they've frequently lacked
the pixel precision of games like Super
Metroid or Contra or any game
that had that pinpoint precision that you could rely on. The feel just got
lost. It just didn't translate. What kind of process did you have? Was it
prototyping?
DM: A
whole lot of prototyping. I don't know that I'd say that we absolutely got it
perfect because I don't know if you can. Mario
64 and Galaxy are probably the
closest I've ever felt in 3D to matching that precision. Even that has some
issues with 3D. It's a lot more challenging with 3D. But yeah, we prototyped
like crazy. Most of our development time went to the controls.
I'd
say well over 50 percent of our efforts... It wasn't the story. It wasn't the
music. It was the controls. A lot of it was music and level design, and we
spent a lot of time there, but our main emphasis was we've got to nail the
controls. If the controls don't feel sweet, then our game sucks, period. It
doesn't matter.
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...not that this had an impact on my experience playing, like some other readers, but the story was very generic (which is what I want for this type of game - an overly complex narrative would take away from this type of game experience) and did not need to be associated with a political douchebag like Card. I'd like to scrape Card and all his neo-con religious-wrong followers off the bottom of my shoe because even though I love the game tremendously, the association with a moron like Card makes me feel like I stepped on a dog turd while walking through a beautiful garden.
And I disagree with Tom.
and I agree with Christopher (btw: Abuse is really awesome o/ In fact, I don't expected someone to have the same idea as I... I am too making myself alone a game that is a mix of Metroid, G.I.Joe and Abuse... But yay! Like that guy said, it is better when someone else do it, because you can explore and whatnot, and when you do it yourself, you know everything, so it is not that cool... Now... back to work... I have much work to do :P
There is a big difference psychologically between discovering something through bombing of a seemingly normal wall, and shining a flashlight at a wall seeing that it is green and remembering that you have to go back to it later when you get grenades. To me the discovery seems a lot more rewarding when, I, the player found the discovery on my own instead of it deliberately being pointed out to me as long as I had my flashlight on.
I'm not saying it wasn't the right move, today's players might very well not care much for doing that, but they also might care to do that in the right context. All I'm saying is that I think our industry has to get over this idea of game mechanics becoming obsolete. The two game mechanics stated, Metroid's, and Shadow Complex's are totally different and usable at different times. Just because Shadow Complex is newer and does it this way doesn't mean a game to come should do it Shadow Complex's way.
It also doesn't mean a game can't use both mechanics, although if it does that it should teach the player early on that both mechanics will be used. Maybe flashlight color coding for most items (health boosts, ammo, weapon upgrades), but bombing of seemingly normal walls for special unique items which would in-turn even provide access to areas with even more flashlight color coded secrets (idea for Shadow Complex 2, please!). These super secret hidden walls wouldn't be crucial to the completion of the game, but they would add a lot of extra content to those that worked to find them. I mean if Fallout 3 can create a game that 95% of it has the potential to never be discovered I think a 2D game can as well.
Shadow Complex was great, but there was never that moment of discovery like there was in a Metroid game because everything felt - designed - due to the color coded environment and flashlight mechanic. Great game Mr. Mustard, but you just can't beat the feeling of discovery you get from bomb hopping up a wall only to find a breakable tile (on your own) a few feet up leading to a mysterious room with character upgrades like in Metroid with a game mechanic that tells the player exactly where all the secrets are. Very nice first attempt though, and I hope Shadow Complex 2 includes some of the ideas I've talked about.
For the most part, the answer is a resounding "Yes", but there are a few times going through I felt genuinely defeated by the game for reasons beyond my own control. They absolutely nailed the level design and progression, but of all things, the combat element tends to let me down.
The best parallel I can draw is with Mirror's Edge - I love the game, but the control's inconsistency, and the forced battles in a game about flow REALLY broke the experience. Shadow Complex, similarly, almost cheats players in several locations when they are killed by something they could not possibly have known ahead of time. One of the better examples are the 'ninja-like' enemies who will grapple to the ceiling while shooting and throwing grenades. They have a tendency to kill the player in seconds, though you won't know that the first time, and they look virtually identical to the normal enemies. This is made worse when a group of 3 foes could have 1 of these characters - the player shoots the wrong one without knowing and are subsequently destroyed by the lone 'ninja'.
Aiming in 3 dimensions with 2 axis also has some issues, but I feel this was REALLY well handled all things in, and the number of times it was an issue were minimal. It's still really annoying when it happens, but mot games do much worse these days.
Additionally, I would very much agree with B N's comments about exploration. I might give the game more of a half and half flow though. Most of the 'breakables' are very straightforward, but there are a number of crates requiring the speed boots which are not at all obvious. Yet as you said, figuring these out tends to be the most rewarding aspect of exploration.
Overall, it's another breakthrough game for the Live arcade. I'm sorry that it HAS lost sales because of Card's involvement, because this game, and the people involved in its creation, deserve high praise for proper prototyping and follow-through.
The biggest negative is the story, which is easily the weakest aspect of the game. The boss design needed some more work, too; the easiest and safest way to bring down every boss was grenades and missiles. I was surprised that I never really had to combine sub-weapons in order to hit the bosses' weak points, etc.
The platforming was good overall, but with a few "Why didn't he grab that?" moments. That's difficult to avoid in this sort of game, but I don't recall ever thinking that while playing BC Rearmed (the simpler graphic style of that game was probably the difference). The 3d aiming concept is very innovative but needed some more polish- I often found myself skipping enemies because I didn't want the hassle of trying to aim into the background. This could be solved with a button that changes the aiming mode. The only other complaint I had is that you would occasionally take damage while you had no control over your character- that's a minor concern, but it's also a pet peeve of mine.
The game's strongest point was the combat, especially at the end when the player has her or his full arsenal. Just simply excellent. The balancing of some of the enemies could use some work, but nothing too major. The exploration mechanics were well done, and they would have been even more fun with a different setting. The progression was controlled really well. I talked a lot more about the negatives than the positives, but that's because the gameplay is just FUN. There really isn't much else to say about it.
If this system was polished a bit and applied to better source material, it would be outstanding (maybe even perfect). For example, if Chair took the reins of the GI Joe franchise and combined the system behind Shadow Complex with a multi-character, team-based system (NES style GI Joe), the minds of old school gamers everywhere would explode. I'm a huge fan of what Chair did with Shadow Complex; now I want to see them up the ante. I think they can solve all of this game's little problems and make something really special.
The flashlight's battery, on the other hand, is stupid: it recharges so quickly, I don't really see why they wouldn't just give it infinite duration. As it is I just leave it on and every couple minutes it turns off for 1-2sec.. basically a constant annoyance. If the battery recharged more slowly I might have to ration its use, but as-is it should just be constant.
I agree with raigan about the flashlight recharging too. On the subject of the flashlight itself, it was convenient, but was it done right? It brought my attention to rocks and such that wouldn't have even noticed were there. No hint or anything, and shrouded in darkness, so light OMFG ITS SO RED. I think, hovering the flashlight for a couple seconds could gradually light up what you're pointing at. That would have had the same effect, but it would reduce the effect of "bringing major attention to everything passively". A lot of times I never felt like I discovered anything, more like the game told me it was there. The scan visor in metroid prime was a good example of that. I still felt like I discovered stuff, even though the visor basically tells me what I need to get through.
And the bosses never required strategy. Just bombardments of missiles.
The game was a good first try, but I'm not ready to label it GOTY or a classic yet. I'm definitely looking forward to a sequel though, and hopefully they could attain classic status with it. I mean, it took 3 metroid games to really hit it right.
I think the flashlight mechanic was good in the sense of making it better for casuals, or people that just haven't been conditioned to play games in such a 'bomb everything' way. It would have been nice to have an option to turn off the big hint highlighting though... or make a power-up that combines with the flashlight power some how later in the game.
For example: Super Metroid. Sure you can bomb every wall, but eventually you find the X-ray visor and now you can scan everything. So the first few times you play and are trying to get 100% it is easy to get the x-visor and just scan away. After a few plays you don't even need it...
A 'moving' edition of the x-ray visor from Metroid, found later in the game, would have been better than color highlighting IMO.
Actually, my biggest complaint was the game didn't feel like it had as many 'wow' moments early on (aside from the tank). I wanted to see jaw-dropping 'wow' moments like the Speed Boots throughout the whole game. Perhaps I'm jaded, but I also subscribe that there should be something memorable to each major area, if not each room. Maybe it also has to do with the pacing. I also think a big lack of memorability had to do with how similar most of the areas looked and a lack of defining background music for each area. This isn't to say that silence or ambience should not have been used - it was used quite effectively in Metroid 2 - but I think it tends to have this effect if 80% of the game is ambience (incidentally, also play Metroid 2 to discover the negative impact of designing areas that look much too similar).
Regarding the Flashlight, I think there is another alternative to this: why not create breakable walls that actually look like they can be broken? Zelda does this with the cracked wall. Show walls with cracks, show debris that's fallen from a weak spot in the ceiling, steam or noises coming from a hole in the wall, and demonstrate that you can blow up vents similar to forcing you to use grenades on the doors. This way you're not just blindly blowing up every wall. Of course, Metroid Prime also has an 'item detector' that plays a thrumming noise you are close to a powerup, so that's another way of doing it (but I will say I liked the benefit of easily seeing large colored objects).
Similarly, I have to wonder if there was so much focus on the blue line rather than on cleverly using maps and target points to indicate that you can travel to this location. I know they're catering to a less experienced audience, but placing a blinking star in a room somewhere off the map shows the player where he has to go without being explicit. Finding a map that shows a new area to explore means you go out there and explore it. You know where to go, just not quite how to get there. A combination of clear objectives and unknown territory lets you keep that exploration while maintaining the sense of discovery. Maybe there are better ways of showing people how to read a map (take another look at Portal?), but it seems to work just fine in Zelda and Castlevania.
I also have to say I am very surprised that somebody would not pick up a game this good simply because it is associated with somebody they don't like. I like some of Card's books, but was disappointed to hear about his politics. But it's not like these beliefs are expressed in Shadow Complex. If you're not playing the game because you don't like somebody who had absolutely nothing to do with its design, then you're just living inside a box and aren't going to get as much fun out of life.